High speed stapler



Oct. 6, 1964 J. J. OUSSANI 3,151,329

' HIGH SPEED STAPLER Filed Oct. 4, 1961 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR.

JANA! .7. owzs/r/w BY 2 5W Ku ATTORNEY III! i 6 3 7/// ///////////A VUnited States Patent Office 3,151,329 Patented Get. 6, 1964 3,151,329HIGH SPEED STAPLER James J. Oussani, 777 th Ave., Brooklyn, N.Y. FiledOct. 4, 1961, Ser. No. 142,917 1 Claim. (Cl. 13)

This invention relates to a stapling device, and more particularly to amotorized high speed stapling device.

This invention relates to an improvement to my inventions as describedin Patents No. 2,205,861 and No. 2,403,947 and, to a certain extent, toimprovements over my invention described in my copending applicationSerial No. 47,296, filed August 3, 1960, now Patent No. 3,022,- 512 ofFeb. 27, 1962.

In the aforesaid patents and application, I have pro vided a powerizedstapler in which powerizing means comprising a solenoid is activated bya switch assembly under the control of the work in relation to a depthguide which includes means first to close the circuit for energizing thesolenoid to activate the driving component, and then to have the drivinginfluence of the solenoid deactivate the switch so that the circuitenergizing the solenoid is immediately broken, to open the circuit inpreparation for the next stapling operation.

In my patents and application aforesaid, the cycle of closing thecircuit to bring circuit closing contacts into engagement is effected bya latching pawl or catch which draws a contact carried on a strip orleaf into engagement with another contact, and includes a tail-pieceextending into the path of a tripping component, to disengage thetail-piece. Such tail-piece in my prior inventions constituted aresilient element, resiliently to respond to repetitive blows itreceived to disconnect the latching bolt from the strip or leaf springand break the circuit for the solenoid.

It has been discovered in the course of use of my patented inventionsthat in repetitive, high speed operation of the stapler, such as in bookbinding, the inertia of the armature struck or driven parts required amanual reduction in the speed of feeding the work, in that themodification of the circuit, such as breaking and making, was not timedat a speed equal to the speed with which work could be removed and refedafter completion of the prior stapling operation.

While some phases of these shortcomings were cured by the invention ofmy pending application aforesaid, there still existed in theseassemblies a requirement to delay the manual change in position for therepetitive operations because the contact components had not beenrestored to break the circuit and re-establish the solenoid to a drivingposition at a sufiiciently high rate of speed or in properly timedrelation. This delay, I have discovered, is occasioned by theuncontrolled recoil in the movable component comprising the latchingpawl which, in the aforesaid patents, although designed resiliently totake up the blow of the solenoid, failed to break the circuit motivatingthe solenoid sufliciently promptly, leaving the armature of the solenoidin its previously thrusted position for an unduly long period. Also, asthe resistance in penetration changed due to varying thickness of thework, recoil of the latching pawl component of the switch would changethe timing required between cycles, to result in having the switchcontacts incorrectly positioned in manually shifting the work from onestapling position to another.

I have found that by a counter-balancing of the contact actuatinglatching pawl to minimize what I believe to be recoil, or to dampen itsmovement or other independent and untimely movement, that a great manyof the shortcomings heretofore experienced in high speed repetitivestapling cycles may be cured or minimized.

Specifically, it is an object of my invention to combine in a powerizedstapler, switch control means under the influence of the depth guidewhich is relatively free from extraneous influence due to momentum orrecoil in operating the stapling device at high speeds, and which,independently of the bulk of the work, will assure a correctre-establishment of the coordinating parts to minimize interruption.

To attain these objects and such further objects as may appear herein orbe hereinafter pointed out, I make reference to the accompanyingdrawings, forming a part hereof, in which FIGURE 1 is a side elevationof a stapler in accordance with my invention, parts being broken away toshow the details;

FIGURE 2 is a magnified broken section taken on the line 22 of FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a view similar to FIGURE 2, with the stapler in the stapledriving position;

FIGURE 4 is a detail of the switch in the initial position of feedingthe work in relation to the depth guide switch;

FIGURE 5 is a detail of the switch at the end of the staple drivingoperation;

FIGURE 6 shows another embodiment of my invention.

Reference will now be made to the drawings wherein, as disclosed in thelatter of my prior mentioned patents, the powerized stapler consists ofa casing 10, having a base 11 arranged removably to hold a staplingassembly 12, which has an anvil 13 in relation to a magazine or track 14for staples, over which is pivotally mounted a driver 15. A bracket 16supports a solenoid 17 having a spring returned plunger armature 18, todrive the driver 15 in a manner more specifically described andillustrated in my patents and application aforesaid.

The casing 10 has its wall 19 provided with a guide slot 20, along whicha switch assembly carrier 21 is mounted on a bracket 22. The switchassembly carrier 21 is preferably slidably held in position along theguide slot 20 by the screw threaded bolt 23 under the control of theknob 24 to adjust the stapling operation, where desired, at varyingspacing from the edge of the work W.

As in my prior devices of the patents and application aforesaid, theswitch assembly carrier 21 has mounted on the bracket 22, an angle plate25 from which are supported conductor strips or spring leaves 26, 27whose upper ends are held in insulated relationship to each other, byproviding to each side of the strips or leaves, insulating blocks 28 andextending bolts 29, from one side of the plate 25 to unite the assembly.The conductor strips or leaves 26, 2'7 terminate in contacts 30, 31 andare held thereby in normally spaced-apart relationship by the preformedbending of the resilient strip 26.

To one side of the strips 26, 27, on another branch of the angle plate25, there is mounted a downwardly depending lever 32, pivoted on the pin33 at its upper end 34. This lever extends adjacent its lower end 35between abutment stop pins 36, 37, anchored on the plate 25 to limit themovement of the lever 32 between these stop pins. A tension spring 35,anchored at its opposite ends to the plate 25 and lever 32,respectively, maintains the lever 32 biased against the forward stop pin36. The terminal end of the lever 32 is provided with a pivoted shoe 38engageable by the work W which, when fed and pressed against the shoeover the anvil 13, may move the lever 32 to a rearward limiting positionagainst the stop pin 37.

Intermediate the upper and lower ends 34 and 35, respectively, of thelever 32, there is mounted a latching pawl or catch 39 by a pivot pin 40extending from the lever 32. The latching pawl or catch 39 has itsforward end 41 directed through the contact strip or leaf 27 and leaf 26in cutouts 42 and 43 formed in the strips 27 and 26, respectively. Aclearance slot 44 .on the plate permits the end 48 to projecttherethrough. The strip 26 has a shoulder 45 in the path of the tooth 46of the latching pawl 39. The pawl 39 has its tail 47 of a weight tocounter-balance the forward end 41 of the latching pawl 39 in favor of aposition normally tending to maintain the tooth 46 in engagement withthe shoulder 45.

The pawl 39, rearwardly of the tooth 46, is provided with a flat 48which rides on the shoulder 45 when the pawl 39 moves from the extremeforward position to the rearwardrnost position (shown in FIGURES 4 and6).

The pawl 39, in addition to the counter-balance of the tail and head inrelation to the pivot, is made of nonspringy material, such as fibrereinforced rubber or nylon which, while relatively hard, has no bounceto a blow. This serves to dampen a blow, to preclude any recoil orindependent vibration or bending blow on the tail extension 47.

The tail 47 of the pawl 39 extends into the path of the tripping slide49. The tripping slide 49 has a vertical branch 59 provided With guideslots 51, vertically to guide the slide 49 on guide pins 52, 52 anchoredon the side flange 25a of the plate 25. A finger 53, extending from theflange 25a, has anchored to it one end of the spring 54. The other endof the spring 54 is anchored to the offset portion 55 of the trippingslide 49 to maintain the slide 49 in a raised positioned in relation tothe plate 25 of the switch assembly. The lower terminal of slide 49 hasa finger 56 integrally formed on the slide 49 in the path of the angleplate 57 attached along the length of the driver section 15 of thestapling assembly.

With an assembly thus described, the stapling operation may be brieflydescribed as, in the main, following the operation of the priorinventions in the patents and pending application for relatively slow,timed, repetitive cycles of operation so that when the work W is:inserted over the anvil 13 and pressed against the shoe 38, the lever 32will be pushed toward the top pin 36 to draw the pawl 39 with it. Thisbrings the tooth 46 into engagement with the shoulder 45 and, in turn,brings the contacts and 31 into engagement, to close the circuit throughthe leads 58a, 58a to the solenoid 17 and drive the armature plunger 18into stapling operation against the driver section 15 of the staplingdevice.

The impact movement of the driver section 15 also serves to engage theflange 57 carried on one side thereof along its length against thefinger 56, to drive the slide 49 down against the upward bias of spring54 and engage the offset shoulder 58, as shown in FIGURE 5, permittingthe leaf or strip 26 to reassume its normal position, spacing thecontacts 30 and 31 from each other and de-energizing the electricalpower to the solenoid by reason of opening the circuit.

By reason of the dampened construction of the pawl 39 resulting from thebalance and non-bounce material of this component, the work may bequickly repeated. Thus, the impelled parts are not recoiled or bouncedincorrectly and the work may be manually removed and moved to a newposition. This occurs as rapidly as can be performed by the operator andas rapidly as gravity returns the pawl 39 to its proper position and thespring for the armature plunger withdraws this member from its drivenposition. This repetitive operation may be erformed with great assurancein that the counter-balanced and dampened, vibrationless pawl has noindependent recoil or reaction to rnisplace the pawl. Thus,

the circuit control-contacts in the small interval of time between thedriving or stapling operation, the manual removal of the work and itsplacement to a new position in relation to the movement of the shoe 38and the lever 32 controlled by the movement of the work W and returnmovement of spring 35a finds these parts correctly positioned. Thisrapid movement in turn gives to the lever 32 a return position withassurance that the latching pawl 39 has dropped, likewise to drop thetooth 46 into engag ing position with the shoulder 45, without chance ofits misplacement due to recoil, vibration bounce, avoiding the chance ofnot being in readiness to break contacts as fast as work has beenstapled and manually moved to a new position.

While I have shown and described in FIGURES 1 to 5, one form of improvedassembly for more effectively preventing the undesirable effect ofrecoil or independent operation which retards the time cycle of staplingbecause of insufiiciently rapid restoration of the parts with manualfeed, I have shown in FIGURE 6 another embodiment for still furtherassuring rapid repetitive cycles.

Referring now to FIGURE 6, wherein all identical parts have identicalreference numerals, there is shown a switch assembly 21a. In this form,the terminal 41 of the latching pawl or catch 39 is further dampenedagainst independent bounce or recoil by providing positive biasing meansconsisting of a tension spring. A finger 61, extending from the lever32a, serves as the opposed anchor for one end of the spring. A pin oreye 62 aflixed to the latching pawl or catch 39 at its terminal end 41forms the anchor for the other end of the spring 60.

In other respects, the switch assembly operates identically with theembodiment of FIGURES 1 to 5 and is similarly installable. The use ofmaterial for the catch or latching pawl 39 so that the tail-piece 47 isof nonbounce material is augmented by dampening means in the form of thespring 60 to the extent that the operation of the stapler does not relyupon a gravitational return of the pawl to engagement with the shoulder45. The stapler may be held erect or laterally, as conditions may makeexpedient for carrying out the feed of the work to the stapler.

By the construction described, high speed repetitive stapling operationsmay be effected as rapidly as manual changes of work can be made.

Having thus described my invention and illustrated its use, what isclaimed as new and is desired to be covered by Letters Patent is:

In an electrically operated fastener driving machine comprising ahousing, a fastener driving device mounted in the housing, a solenoid, aplunger operated by the solenoid to operate said device, a switchcarrier mounted in the housing, a switch on said carrier comprising apair of conductors carrying contacts, one of said conductors beingresilient normally to maintain the contacts separated, a lever catchpivotally mounted on the carrier having a tooth to engage the resilientconductor to shift it, a movable abutment carried by the lever andadapted to be shifted by the work when it is inserted to fasteningposition to shift the latch and the movable contact into circuit closingposition for the solenoid, means movable by the plunger to release thelatch, the combination wherein such latch is counter-balanced by springmeans biasing said catch into engaging position to minimize recoil.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS2,975,424 Oussani Mar. 21, 1961

